Alison+Taylor's+Essential+Question+One

As students, our learning is shaped by our language development. It affects students because their culture and home life is what first shapes them and is the first place they will learn. The first place we learn is our home and whatever we learn there will be carried into our classroom on our first day of school. Their first language and teaches them grammar and will either lead them to a positive experience or negative experience in the school environment. After doing the linguistic discourse study on my students who speak Spanish at home I realized that this was causing them to still feel insecure in high school with their English grammar. They struggle with grammatical issues because they are different in their home language. This is very important to know about a student so we can know how to care for them as a student and how to helpfully instruct them without bringing shame on their culture and background. After reading the Language and Prejudice article, I wrote: “It is an unfortunate truth that we judge people based on the way they share themselves through vernacular, whether is it geographical or educational.....Southerners would make fun of themselves often and my husband who is from there has often spoke about how he tried to change his vernacular at a young age because he didn’t want to be seen as “rural or ignorant” but rather “professional and intelligent”. I think there is a strong prejudice against students who speak differently as well. I have spoken with students at the high school I work in who have been shocked at how they have been perceived in interviews for part time jobs. One of my students was very upset because she could tell that the employer who was interviewing her was obviously distressed by the way she spoke.” I was reminded through reading this article that we do judge people based on their vernacular and unfortunately people can feel that judgment which can affect their learning negatively. Judith Baker writes in The Skin We Speak that “’home’ vernacular is a combination of English and their mother tongue” (Baker 51) and my response to her was that I think it is our responsible to teach students that this language of theirs is not wrong but to help them be prepared for the English they need to be familiarized with in school and work settings. I think their mother tongue affects their learning though because it will probably discourage or encourage them if their mother tongue is similar or dissimilar to what they are being told to speak in at school and in media. Hilliard also follows up on this idea in claiming that culture is language which points at how closely their cultural development is linked with their learning development. Students culture shapes who they are as individuals and directly impacts their development. In New York City, our students come from very diverse cultures which can affect their learning. I think it can be a gift for students in a lot of ways but it can also be hard if their culture clashes with what they are being taught in grammar and English. This can cause students to feel confused and overwhelmed. It can also cause them to struggle with their identity because what they are being taught is unfamiliar and in some cases they are the first in their family to learn what they are learning. Language development at a young age is the best way to help students learn. It is important as teachers that we help students grow in language development to help them grow in every area of life.